Opposition to School Law Growing, Poll Says

American voters are becoming increasingly aware of the No Child Left
Behind Act, but a growing minority of them are deciding they
don’t like it, a new poll sponsored by the Public Education
Network and Education Week suggests.

Three-fourths of voters questioned in January said they had heard
about the bipartisan law, up from 56 percent who said so in a survey a
year earlier.

"That’s a very significant increase," said Celinda C. Lake, a
prominent Democratic pollster and the president of Lake Snell Perry
& Associates Inc., the Washington-based firm that conducted the
survey, whose results were released here last week. But, she added
during an April 1 press conference, "to have found out about No Child
Left Behind is not to have become a fan of it."

While supporters still outweighed those who dislike the law, the
opposition grew threefold between January 2003 and a year later.
Twenty-eight percent of this year’s respondents said they opposed
the No Child Left Behind Act, compared with 8 percent in the 2003
PEN/Education Week poll.

The level of support remained relatively steady, dipping slightly
from 40 percent of respondents a year ago to 36 percent this year.
About one-third this year said they were "not sure" whether they
supported or opposed the law. The question did not seek to characterize
the federal measure.

President Bush has championed the law—which passed Congress by
overwhelming majorities in 2001—as a centerpiece of his domestic
agenda.

A total of 1,050 registered voters were surveyed by telephone for
the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage
points. The survey includes an oversampling of 125 African-American
voters and 125 Latino voters.

But David H. Winston, a Republican political strategist and the
president of the Winston Group, a polling firm in Alexandria, Va., said
the opinion research his group has conducted on the No Child Left
Behind Act doesn’t bear out the conclusion that more voters are
opposing it.

"I didn’t see any significant increase in favoring or opposing
[the law]," he said last week. "It basically stayed where it was."

Mr. Winston cautioned that there were some differences in polling
technique, both in the phrasing of questions and the sample. His group
polled 1,000 registered voters with no oversampling.

A December 2002 poll by the Winston Group showed 50 percent of
respondents with a favorable impression of "Bush’s education
reforms," and 29 percent unfavorable. Results from a January 2004
survey were about the same, with 52 percent favorable and 33 percent
unfavorable.

That 2004 Winston Group poll also asked the same question using the
name "No Child Left Behind Act." With that wording, 54 percent had a
favorable impression, and 23 percent an unfavorable one. The poll had a
margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

‘Sin’ Taxes for Education

The fifth annual PEN/Education Week poll, funded by a grant
from the MetLife Foundation, also examined how education stacks up
against other concerns, how it might play in the presidential race, and
how voters view taxes for schools.

It found that the "economy and jobs" was the top national concern of
voters, with education ranking second. Out of 11 possible choices, the
"economy and jobs" was selected by 27 percent of voters and education
by 15 percent.

"In the wake of September 11 ... the public continues to see
education as a top priority," said Wendy D. Puriefoy, the president of
the Public Education Network. Based in Washington, PEN is an
organization of local education funds and individuals that seeks to
promote community engagement in public schools.

Education is an important consideration for a majority of voters
when weighing candidates for president, according to the survey.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents said they would be "somewhat more"
or "much more" likely to vote for a presidential candidate who promised
to make education "the centerpiece of their administration."

The poll suggests voters are divided on President Bush’s
performance when it comes to public education. Thirty-five percent of
respondents said the president was doing a "good" job, and 10 percent
said "excellent." Meanwhile, 27 percent said he was doing a "just fair"
job and 25 percent a "poor" job regarding public education.

Voters were also asked about their views on tax and budgetary
matters. Sixty percent said they believed public schools did not
receive enough federal aid. Education was the top item respondents said
they would want to protect from cuts if their states faced budget
reductions, with nearly half selecting that area of spending.

Consistent with previous years’ polling data, the respondents
expressed a willingness to pay higher taxes to improve public
education. Fifty-nine percent were either "very willing" or "somewhat
willing" to do so.

In probing the issue further, however, the poll found respondents
disinclined to choose federal income taxes or local property taxes as
their favored approach.

To examine how voters would raise extra funds for education, the
survey listed six categories—five that focused on higher taxes
and one on cutting spending elsewhere—and asked respondents to
identify which they would be "most likely" to support, and then to
provide a second choice.

The most popular approach was increasing taxes on alcohol and
tobacco, followed by increasing taxes on families that earn more than
$300,000 per year. Coming in third was higher taxes on
corporations.

Ms. Lake said such preferences shouldn’t be too
surprising.

"Sure, their favorite taxes are sin taxes, taxes on the wealthy,
corporate taxes," she said. "But that doesn’t mean they
wouldn’t have supported a tax of another nature." She emphasized
that 60 percent said they would pay more in taxes generally for
education.

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